


Laundromat

by duckiesandlemons



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Laundromat AU, M/M, ygoshipolympics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 19:42:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4678949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duckiesandlemons/pseuds/duckiesandlemons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And that shitty TV in the laundromat keeps on playing infomercials and it's three in the morning and here he is with Sakaki Yuuya, some loser who decided to enter Shun's life by throwing a box of dryer sheets at his head, leaning against him asleep.</p><p>Laundromats are not ideal in meeting your boyfriend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Three AM

**Author's Note:**

> Met in a laundromat AUs are the best 
> 
> Written for ygoshipolympics prompt Regret + challenge of Promise!

“ _Call now to own this fabulous DVD set of beautifully restored--_ ”

 _Dull_.

Shun’s eyes are practically melting out of his eye sockets and he’s got nothing better to be doing besides this school work he’d rather _not_ be doing.  There’s the monotonous drone of the washers not too far from him, filled to the brim with his clothes, and the sound of the old TV propped up high on one of the support columns, but other than that.

Absolutely nothing.

Then again it’s two in the morning at the twenty-four hour laundromat not too far from campus, so the only people really here are him, the night shift, and that’s about it.  There had been one other person prior, but they had long since left once one thirty had rolled around.

“ _Have you ever wanted to have knives that don’t ruin the food you try to cut?_ ”

Shun idly taps his pen against the paper of his notebook, trying to make sense of the words he has scribbled out on it and relate them to the notecards he’s got set next to him.  There’s citation after citation after citation and somewhere here in the year of whatever B.C. the rise of--Shun groans and thunks his head against the table.  He can’t do this, he can’t.

His brain is going to fry and history isn’t even his major it’s just a required course he has to take if he wants to get his degree.

“ _Hi, my name is John Vince and if you’re tired of dull clothing from the laundry then I have a product--_ ”

Washing machine noises.

He’s not going to make it at this rate.  He’ll expire from this mortal realm before he can even get this paper in, and he’ll spend his life haunting the campus.  Also he still needs to get those fifty bucks Yuuto owes him back so maybe it’s less haunting this campus and more haunting Yuuto until his best friend leaves those fifty bucks as an offering at his grave.  Who even needed that much money for a pair of already ripped skinny jeans?

So caught up in his thoughts of revenge and haunting that he misses, completely, the sound of the door opening and someone giving a startled yelp.  

Probably the only reason Shun noticed anything is because he’s oh so gracefully brained by a stray box of dryer sheets flung directly at his head.

He goes pitching forward, head slamming into his notebook hard.  It _hurts_ , a sharp pain that has him cussing up a storm.  Whoever the hell thought it would be funny to throw a box of dryer sheets or whatever at his head had some _severe_ explaining to do.  Shun turns in the chair he had nabbed, ready to yell, but pauses.

Someone’s on the floor, looking ready to cry, as they picked up their spilled laundry.

They also look just as tired as Shun.

“S-sorry,” they stutter, hastily cramming colorful articles of clothing back into his laundry basket.  A packet of tide laundry pods are also on the floor, along with a gaudily decorated backpack.  Like, the kind Shun’s only seen in high school dramas.  It’s some red decorated with cute decorative pins and riddled with keychains, all of bright colors and various duel monsters--

"Is that Discover Hippo?" Shun ends up blurring out because the kid has a...plethora of hippo keychains.  One obnoxious pink one in a top hat and three other colorful ones in questionable garb.  It's ridiculous.

But the person's face lights up anyways.  "Yeah! Entermate Discover Hippo, and the three under it are--" Shun cuts the loser off by tossing the box of lethal dryer sheets back at them.  He shouldn't have mentioned hippos.  Or, really, he shouldn't have mentioned Discover Hippo key chains.

"Ah, Uhm, thanks, and sorry about that again."

Back to weird silence and that one TV again.

This time it's punctuated by the noises of the newcomer putting their clothes in to wash, the droning of the tv muffled by each drop of a quarter in the coin slot.  It's two am, what possessed another soul to come out here to the laundromat?  Shun had a paper but this person--

" _Don't let the inability to express yourself fail you when trying to come up with the perfect gift for that special someone!_ "

"Uhm," the person's walked back over again.

"What?"

"Sorry again...I mean, I didn't mean to fling the box at you I kind of tripped."

"Kind of."

" _Well worry no more because we have the right thing for you! Introducing--_ "

"Sakaki Yuuya."

"What?" Shun has to do a double take, considering the name comes out of nowhere.  "I didn't ask."

"Yeah, but it's the polite thing to do."

"Is it?"

Yuuya pouts.  And now that Shun's got a good look at him he sees vibrant red eyes--expressive--and a rounded face.  Freshman, probably.

"It is!" So what's your name?

" _Wow and amaze your friends with this perfect for any occasion gift, or make birthdays a blast!  Order now and we'll throw in--_ "

"Kurosaki Shun."

Yuuya smiles.

"Then, Kurosaki, what type of deck do you use?"


	2. Friendship 101

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Studying the fundamentals of human interaction.
> 
> Or at least putting them into practice.

About two weeks pass since Shun's not so fateful meeting with Sakaki Yuuya, and it seems once you meet a person once they come back to haunt you repeatedly.  

So Shun finds out a lot more about Yuuya than he'd prefer, simply because--and here's the killer--Sakaki Yuuya is the brother of Yuuto.  Shun's best friend, the one he'd take a gunshot for, and also the one he wouldn't hesitate to push into the pool first at a pool party because he ate the last hotdog.  

Yuuya is not a freshman like Shun thinks,  he's a sophomore, and he's a musical theatre major.  His favorite colors are green, white, and red, he's blood type B, and he's a Gemini.  Also, he runs an Entermate deck which Shun had to laugh at because it fits and at the same time the designs are ridiculous. Then again, he’s told not to laugh because, Shun, have you even looked at your own cards it’s like some dystopian sci-fi clusterfuck with _birds_.

And birds are worth it, also Raid Raptors are cool _and_ lethal so there you can shove it—

That’s off topic, because in the long run it just boils down to the fact that Shun knows way too much about Sakaki Yuuya without even trying to find out about Sakaki Yuuya.  There’s probably a million other things that Shun’s found out, but at this point his mind is so full of facts on one person he’s never going to see again it feels bloated.  “Why are you telling me so much, anyways?” Shun gripes to Yuuto once they settle down in the student union, food from one of the local food shops spread before them.

Yuuto’s picking at some salad, slathered in ranch and loaded with gratuitous slices of cucumber.

Shun has a tray of sushi from the cheap ass “sushi shop.”

“Because,” Yuuto says, “Yuuya’s my little brother who wants to be your friend and if you hurt him I’m going to gut you.”  There’s the nice timing of a vicious stab of Yuuto’s fork into some poor piece of unsuspecting lettuce.  The words are even said in Yuuto’s typical monotone, as if it’s just some passing joke between the two of them as _friends_.

Shun swallows.

“Friend,” Shun repeats.  “Your little brother wants to be friends with me.”

“He also still feels kind of bad about nailing you in the head with the box of dryer sheets,” another vicious stab, “and he also wants to duel you.”

Shun really should have kept his mouth shut on that damn Discover Hippo keychain.

“Duel me,” Shun starts removing the lid of his food.  “I don’t even have time for that.”

“You spend two hours in a shop picking out which cards to buy for your deck I’m pretty sure you have the time.”

“And you spend two hours in a hot topic buying all that…whatever,” here he motions to the liberal amount of accessories Yuuto’s wearing, all silver chain and piercings and leather.

“You’re hot topic reject trash, too, Shun.”

“I don’t spend fifty dollars on ripped skinny jeans,” at this point he’s just _offended_.

Yuuto rolls his eyes, stabs at his salad again, and drops the argument entirely, “So Yuuya wants to be friends with you, you should say hi to him one day.”

“No,” because Shun doesn’t _do_ social.  He’d much rather do his paper, make sure his sisters are okay, and graduate with a degree.  Friendships can just…take a backburner or something.  He’s got too much on his plate for anything else, regardless of two hours spent in a comic book shop or somewhere else picking out the perfect cards for his deck.

“Uh-huh,” another stab.  “Don’t make him cry, Shun.”

“Is that a threat—“

But Yuuto gets up to “go get ready” for his next class, leaving Shun floundering about in the student union with a not even touched plastic tray of subpar sushi and the words of “Yuuya wants to be friends” floating in his head.

Shun doesn’t _do_ social.  At all.  Yuuya is just some kid who’s a Gemini and blood type B and who accidentally sniped Shun in the head with a box full of dryer sheets and has a backpack _covered_ in _god damn hippos_.  That’s like….a onetime thing, that’s it.  Nothing else, no second meetings, no text messages, and definitely no accidental—

“Ah, Kurosaki!”

He jinxed himself.

He fucking jinxed himself.

Sakaki Yuuya runs up, eyes sparkling, and eagerly takes the place that Yuuto had been sitting in earlier.  Shun didn’t even give him permission to sit there.

“Nice to see you again!” Yuuya’s grinning from ear to ear, red eyes sparkling just like last time. 

“Not really,” he keeps his voice as deadpan as possible. 

Yuuya doesn’t even wilt.

“So, how have classes been for you so far?”

“Why are you here?”

“I can’t say hi?”

“Not at all.”

Yuuya’s smile starts turning into a slight frown.  Maybe he finally gets it now and Shun can be left to eat his shitty sushi in peace. 

“Geeze, and here I was trying to apologize better for smacking you in the head last week.”

“Once was enough.”

“Nuh-uh!” Yuuya’s hands slam on the table, his cheer coming back.  “It looked like it hurt, so I gotta make up for it somehow!”

Shun can’t even think of anything to say to that, considering most of his rebuttals (or lack of them) have been shot down in the pure strength of Yuuya’s _will_ and _ridiculous amounts of cheer_.  The kid could fuel all of Disneyland alone with his smile, probably.  How the hell did Yuuto end up coming from the same womb as Yuuya?

A mystery Shun isn’t (and never wants to) going to get an answer for.

“How about I take you to eat somewhere, oh, or maybe I can let you see one of my shows for free—“

“That’s—“

“—oh, there’s a nice ice cream shop not too far from here that Yuzu likes to go to a lot we can eat there!” and Yuuya continues to steam roll him.  Shun’s floored by this.  How can one person talk so much without needing a breath?  No, how is Sakaki Yuuya (Gemini, blood type B, his brain keeps reminding him) so talkative and bright and—

“Classes,” Shun says, and gets up and leaves.

“Ah, class—wait!  Wait!  Kurosaki, you didn’t say yes or no!”

And Shun leaves it at that, widening the distance between him and one Sakaki Yuuya as much as possible.  He needs to find a place to hide out for the next hour or so that’s not his room, because another thing about becoming friends with Sakaki Yuuya—

The absolute worst thing and why he knows Yuuya is a musical theatre major besides finding out from Yuuto—

Is that his roommate, one obnoxious Dennis Macfield, is on personal speaking terms with one Sakaki Yuuya.

He’d be ratted out in a heartbeat.

Because Dennis is obnoxious.

And an ass.

So Shun goes to the next best place he can think of—the Laundromat.  Most likely crowded with other students and residents of the sleepy town their college is placed in, and Shun can hide out behind the counter with one of the staff.  Pretend that he’s at class. 

Although he might as well do his laundry thinking on it—

Shun stops at on-campus apartment he shares with Dennis, going to his room to grab the basket of dirty clothes there as well as his detergent and dryer sheets.  It seems Dennis is home, too, considering the minute Shun comes out of his room Dennis is already on the couch looking too smug of himself.

“Soooo, Shun,” Dennis drawls.  “Where are you going at this time of day?”

“Laundry,” Shun answers.  “If I do yours, shut up, don’t say anything, I never stopped by here.”

“Of course!” and Dennis gets up, reaches down, and lifts up his own basket of laundry.  “Be careful with some of these, they’re delicates you know.”

“You just wear shitty cashmere.”

Dennis just laughs and hands Shun the basket.

“I’ll make sure to keep your whereabouts unknown to precious Yuuya!” Dennis sings as Shun leaves.  If he had a free hand, he’d flip Dennis off while leaving, but as it is he can only fervently pray that Dennis stubs his toe on the coffee table and trip down the last few steps on the way to practice and bust his nose.  That’s not too violent.

It takes Shun a bit to get to the laundromat, but when he opens the door, he’s greeted by the chatter of a bunch of sorority girls clumped around one of the tables, the sound of washers and dryers going off, and an old man snoring in one of the chairs in front of the one TV.

He finds a couple of washers free in the back corner of the laundromat and gets to work loading up his and Dennis’ clothes, placing in the proper amount of detergent and the required amount of change.  Once those start running, Shun stacks the baskets and places them on top of one of the washers before going to retreat behind the counter with the worker there.

“Ah, brother?”

“…Rin.”

“What are you doing?”

“I didn’t know you worked here.”

“I’ve been here for a while, you just never come during the daytime.”

Shun nods his head once and just settles underneath the counter.  Rin kneels next to him, staring at him curiously, “Why are you even here?  Do they normally let you here?”

“Yeah, also I’m sort of hiding—“

“Are you avoiding making friends again?” it’s followed up by a frown.  Shun just gives her a shrug.  One that she ignores and promptly flicks him in the forehead.  Shun winces, but doesn’t say anything.  She’s _right_ in that he is avoiding all forms of human contact by those not in his friend or family group, but at the same time she shouldn’t judge.  She usually spends most of her time with Yuugo, so he feels perfectly justified.

Rin’s mouth twists into a frown, “Shun, that’s rude you know!”

“And?”

“At least try to make an effort with this person!  You can’t just have Yuuto and Dennis as your friends forever.”

Dennis had been a mistake brought about by living together in close quarters, but Shun keeps his mouth shut on that.  Instead, he asks, “So what should I do?”

“Well, who is it?”

The door jingle opens and Rin gets up to greet whoever came in.

“Sakaki Yuuya,” he mentions and that is just a bad idea in general.

“Ah, Yuuya!  Welcome!”

“Hey, Rin!  How’s it going?”

“Good, good!  My brother wants to tell you something!”

“Brother—“

Shun wants to curl up in a hole and die already.

“Kurosaki…Kurosaki Rin!  No wonder Kurosaki’s name sounded familiar I didn’t know he was your older brother! You’re both…nothing alike.”

Rin laughs, “A lot of people say that, but here—“

And she’s reaching down to tug Shun up.  He—reluctantly—gets up and stares at Yuuya.  Yuuya who’s frowning a bit.  “Didn’t you say you had class?” he sounds suspicious, which is fair enough.

“Got cancelled,” Shun answers.  He ignores the glare Rin gives him because brother lying is bad you know.  And he knows, oh, he _definitely_ knows it’s just that he can’t get caught with his pants down—so to speak.

“Oh, so you’re doing laundry?”

“Me and my roommate’s.”

Yuuya seems to latch on to any chain of conversation available, “Roommate!  Ah, who is it?”

Another stern look from Rin.

“Dennis Macfield.”

“Wow, I—I can’t imagine it,” Yuuya laughs.  It’s okay, Shun can’t either but here he is living the cold reality of life known as Dennis Macfield singing Phantom of the Opera at four in the fucking morning.  “I mean, I usually hang around him when we’re doing practice so living with him must be really different!” Yuuya continues.

“Not really,” Shun answers.  “He’s just as obnoxious there as he is on stage.”

That is to say he’s a fucking drama queen.

“Anything else?”

“He sings cheesy show tunes at the butt crack of dawn, steals my books, eats all the food in the apartment, and makes me wash his shitty cashmere sweaters.”

Who even wears shitty cashmere sweaters?

Yuuya blinks, “That…uhm…sounds like something.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Brother!”

Shun doubles over when Rin elbows him hard. 

In the background, his washers stop running with a ding. 


	3. Friendship 102

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Practical application of the skills studied in 101

It’s been about three weeks since that forced encounter with Yuuya in the laundromat thanks to Rin.  Shun now, somehow, has Yuuya’s number, e-mail, other e-mail, twitter, LINE, and class schedule.  Which is also true for the reverse except Shun only had one e-mail to give out, he’s only on twitter once in a blue moon, he doesn’t even _have_ LINE despite Yuuya’s efforts to convince him to get one, and Shun had to own up to his pathetic white lie of “I have class.”  That had been fun in and of itself but Shun doesn’t dwell much on details.

Keyword: much.

Now Shun’s standing back in the laundromat at the decent time of eleven in the morning, not as many people there because most are in class, and he’s standing there in a baggy sweatshirt and khakis because he ran out of clothes.  Not to mention it’s getting colder outside so he just threw fashion sense to the wind and threw on a beanie so now he’s probably doing his best impression of some hipster ass hat who spends way too much time in a coffee shop saying that they read Nietzsche and seriously studied Freud.

Shun’s studied Freud.

It’s not very interesting.  Then again, most required courses for his major that aren’t directly a part of his major are boring. 

Shun’s actions are mechanical as he transfers wet clothes from the laundry cart he had shoved them into and into the dryer.  The door is slammed shut, more quarters popped into the slot, and then his clothes start turning.  With that done, he goes to slump in a chair he had dragged over to a folding table he claimed for himself.  His books are spread across it, detergent and dryer sheets on the shelf above, and Shun _really_ doesn’t want to do any more history.

There’s only so much history he can take before he drives himself up the wall—

The door opens with a jingle, an old woman and her grand kid walking in.  The kid’s yelling loudly about something, running to the vending machine and slamming their hands against it.  She says something, but it’s drowned out by the brat’s loud whining.  He’s not getting any studying done at this rate so he might as well just pop in his headphones or something.

Complete that look.

Shun leans back in his chair, content to do just that, until he feels a tap on his shoulder.

His reaction is quick—a jump followed by him whirling around to punch whoever startled him.  Of course, it’s Yuuya, and his fist falls a few inches short of connecting.  Yuuto will kill him if Yuuya comes back with a bruised cheek or black eye.

“Did I startle you?” Yuuya laughs nervously.  “Sorry, won’t do it again!”

“Whatever,” Shun turns back around in his chair.  “What are you doing here anyways?”

“Laundry, duh,” Yuuya’s walking to a line of washers with a cart being dragged behind him.  “I share one of those four room apartments with my brothers and they all have class right now so I’m on laundry duty this week.”

“Brothers.”

“Yep!” Yuuya’s already pulling out the laundry and shoving clothes into the cart.  “There’s Yuuto, Yuugo, and Yuuri!”

Yuuto never talks much about the other two, but Shun wonders if that’s just because they’re not interested in being Shun’s friend (thank god) or if they were just that annoying.  Knowing Yuuto, it’s probably the last one. 

“And you’re the youngest?”

“Yep!  Yuugo’s the oldest…by like an hour.”

They’re quadruplets.

“Sounds like a massive headache,” Shun says, voice deadpan. 

Yuuya laughs again, “Kind of, yeah!  But they all mean well, even if they’re a bit overprotective.”  Shun wants to continue that line of questioning, curiosity pushing him on.  Then again, he remembers how Yuuto threatened him casually over a salad, so that just answers everything right there.  Shun’s never been threatened while someone nonchalantly eats salad loaded with cucumbers but there’s a first for everything.

The kid starts whining again over something else this time.

“A bit,” Shun emphasizes.  “That sounds like a lie.”

“Well—“

Yuuya falls quiet, opening the dryers next to the ones Shun’s taken to start placing each load of clothes in.  Four doors shut, too many quarters used, and Yuuya sits on the folding table to face Shun.

“So, you wanna do something together?”

“You’re jumping the gun here.”

“Not really,” Yuuya grins at him, bashful and happy all at once.  “We’ve known each other for about a month now, right?”

Against Shun’s will (even if a part of him doesn’t really regret everything that ended up happening).

“That means it’s natural to do something at least once together,” Yuuya finishes.  “We can go watch a movie, eat somewhere, go to the next town over and shop at the mall, duel.”

And Yuuya is still really insistent about dueling Shun.

“Do you have your deck on you?” Shun asks, already reaching for his backpack to pull out his deck box.  Yuuya grins, shrugging off that hippo covered menace of a backpack he still had on to pull out his own deck box.

“Always!” Yuuya chirps.  “I’m gonna kick your butt so hard.”

“Like hell,” and Shun’s already shuffling his deck.

“Totally.”

“Ah, grandma, grandma, look, duel monsters--!” the kid’s voice is drowned out by the sound of the washing machines and dryers, the TV being turned up a couple of notches and some day time soap opera playing that the grandma settles down to watch.

“ _And you thought it was okay to do that!?  You stomped on my feelings, Tommy—_ “

“Rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first,” Shun says.  “Ready?”

“Of course!”

Yuuya has scissors to Shun’s paper.

“That means I go first!”

“Fine,” and Shun waits to see what Yuuya plays.

They end up playing far longer than intended, Shun winning most of the duels save for one where the kid had approached and Yuuya—Gemini and blood type B Yuuya—indulged the kid to teach him how to duel so Kurosaki you have to lose on purpose, okay?  The grandmother had thanked them profusely before leaving, and they were about to start another duel before Shun checked the dryers.

“I can’t believe you made me duel that long,” Shun hisses, opening up the dryer that had his clothes and hastily shoving them into his basket.  He’ll fold them later when he gets home.

“Well, I wanted to win!” Yuuya’s pouting.  “I mean, I was close that one time—“

“Yeah right.”

“Seriously!”

“Next time then,” Shun tells him.  Somehow, it doesn’t feel like just a month prior Yuuya threw a box of dryer sheets at him and Shun then proceeded to ignore him.  It’s…almost too comfortable and Shun makes a face at that. 

Yuuya’s still pulling clothes out, most likely actually staying to fold all of them since he has to transport it all back to his apartment.

“Need help?”

“Huh?  Nah, Yuzu and Gongenzaka are coming after class to help,” Yuuya huffs.  “You think my brothers would come ‘cuz it’s their clothes but nooooo, they have other things to do.”

A pause.

“Or in Yuuri’s case, he just kind of goes and does whatever we’re not quite sure yet.  Yuugo theorizes he’s planning world domination with the engineering club because Yuuri hangs around the engineering building so much.”

Shun…isn’t going to pursue that.

“Alright, I’ll see you later then.”

“Ah, and do you wanna go somewhere!?” Yuuya shouts out all too quickly.

“I’ll think on it.”

“Text me!”

Shun gets back to the apartment a little after one, walking to the sofa and placing the basket down.  He reaches for the remote, turns on the TV, and heads to the kitchenette to start making lunch.  Dennis is either still asleep or out which means Shun at least gets some peace and quiet for a while.

A door clicks open.

Maybe not.

“Welcome back, Shun,” Dennis yawns.  “What took you so long?  You left at like nine thirty.” 

“Nothing much,” he’s got enough to make chicken salad with the leftover chicken from last night.  “I ran into Yuuya, we dueled.”

“Oho,” there’s a thwump noise as Dennis plops on the sofa, “you’ve gotten closer, I see?  Well, be careful with delicate little Yuuya, we need him for the upcoming play!”

Shun snorts, “Nothing delicate about him.”

“How would you know?” the question is followed by a scandalous gasp.  “Don’t tell me you—“

“Macfield, I’ll throw this knife at your head if you don’t stop right there.”

“Fine, fine,” and Dennis is back to reclining on the couch.  He falls quiet, caught up in whatever is playing on the TV, and Shun goes back to prepping everything while he waits for his eggs to boil.  He has been getting to know Yuuya better—past the basic information he had been given earlier.

Although Yuuya had demanded the same at some point.

Kurosaki Shun, a Junior in college, a zoology major who stretched out his required courses too long,  his favorite colors are black, red, and gray, and he’s a Scorpio, blood type AB.  As he’s said earlier, he runs a Raid Raptors deck, he probably spends more time in that laundromat than he cares to admit, and he’s got two younger sisters.  Rin and Ruri, and of course Yuuya knows them considering how much the two actually spend time with his brothers.

Shun can’t believe their friendship even happened.

“Ah, Shun?”

“What is it, Dennis?”

“When did you ever own a star printed tank top,” Shun looks up to see Dennis holding said article of clothing.  “I mean, it’s cute, I never expected you to be into this kind of thing—“

“That’s not mine.”

“Also I never knew you liked hippos,” and Dennis proceeds to hold up a pair of….discover hippo print boxers.

That’s definitely not his.

He’s already rushing for his phone out of mortification, not caring if he overcooks his eggs.


	4. Crushes 215

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look on how friendships or even simple gazes can turn into so much more. Friendship 101 and 102 prerequisite.

The text message Shun had sent Yuuya had been awkward as hell, and they both had agreed on meeting up somewhere for an exchange of laundry.  Of course, Shun’s luck had it that Yuuya had to push it back a day or two because of some family emergency so Shun had to deal with whatever he could find.

“Sorry about that,” Yuuya wheezes, running up to the stairwell of Shun’s complex.  It’s been approximately two days since Shun texted him.

“It’s fine,” Shun says, “but if you were tied up you could have sent Yuuto with the basket he knows where I live.”

“No—“ the word comes out too fast and Yuuya turns red, burying his face into the scarf he has wrapped around his neck.  “I—that is—I wanted to do it and Yuuto was also busy so—“

Yuuya’s stuttering an awful lot, and Shun’s wondering why.  It’s just laundry, and Shun’s long since gotten over his own mortification at accidentally grabbing the wrong clothes. 

“Here,” he’s already passing the basket of Yuuya’s folded clothes over.

“Thanks, and here’s yours,” there’s an awkward passing of baskets, and now they’re just…standing there.  Yuuya in some monochrome get up different from the usual colors he puts on and Shun standing there in his pajamas.  It made for a very awkward scene.

“Your brothers say anything when you came back with the wrong clothes?”

“Yuugo flipped,” Yuuya starts laughing.  “He started yelling about how I better not have a boyf—I mean, he just threw one of his usual fits!”  Shun has to frown at how quickly Yuuya changes his sentence.  That’s not really…Yuuya.  In the month that Shun’s known him, Yuuya’s all cheer and steamrolling people by speaking a mile a minute.

Not…whatever this stuttering mess is.

“They didn’t damage my clothes any, did they?”

“No, but Yuuri debated doing it.  I stopped him.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem!” Yuuya’s somewhat back to his usual self, giving Shun a toothy grin.  “Sorry about that again.”  It’s Shun’s fault, Yuuya has no reason to apologize.  He had been an unobservant dumbass and opened the wrong dryer—something Yuuya couldn’t really control unless he had been paying just as much attention but they were in a hurry.

Shun just shrugs, “Whatever.  So I’ll see you later?”

“Yeah!  Yeah,” Yuuya has the basket of laundry resting on one hip, his free hand coming up to scratch at the back of his head.  “Definitely later.”

“Alright, I’m heading back up—“

“Wait!” Yuuya’s a darker shade of red.  “No—no, not like that I mean—hanging out together at some point uhm—let me take you somewhere I—“

This is definitely odd.  Yuuya had no issues talking with him earlier.

“You still wanna go hang out somewhere?” Shun finishes Yuuya’s sentence for him.  Yuuya doesn’t even bother to speak this go around opting instead to just furiously nod his head.  Shun sighs, “Let’s meet at the quad this weekend then—three.”

Yuuya’s eyes brighten, “Y-yeah!  Okay I’ll meet you at the quad around three then!  It’s a promise!”

Yuuya gives him a quick goodbye before running off, almost tripping, but he gets back up quickly.  Shun sighs, heading back up the stairs to his apartment.  When he gets to the floor their apartment is on he notices Dennis leaning against the railing looking all too smug.

“The hell you grinning about?”

“Ohhh, I don’t know, perhaps just something I saw that amused me,” Dennis hums.  “You know, Shun, for only knowing Yuuya for a month you’re incredibly soft on him.”

“That supposed to mean something?” Shun shoulders the door to their apartment open, going to his room to place the basket of laundry— _his_ laundry—down.  Dennis follows after, the door closing shut behind him.

“I’m just saying,” Dennis starts, “that someone might have a crush!”  Dennis drags that last word out, a playful note resting in his words.  “And wouldn’t that be something, a person with a crush on some oblivious asshole.”

“So you’re saying that Sakaki Yuuya has a crush on me?” Shun spits out when he comes stalking back out of his room.  “Ridiculous.”

“Don’t be a heartbreaker now!” Dennis follows it up with a wink.  “I don’t think poor Yuuya can handle it—or you, for that matter.”

“You’re speaking like I already like him.”

Which is annoying in and of itself, since Dennis pulls off this know it all act half the damn time and then the other half pretending he has no fucking clue about whatever it is he just did.  An evader of all things important, bearer of news only he finds interesting, Dennis Macfield is a menace.

“That could be, I mean, you were the one who asked him out on a da—hrk!!”

Shun throws a pillow right at Dennis’ face, nailing him square on.  There’s a satisfying thud as Dennis falls off the couch, startled and clutching a pillow for dear life.

“What was that for!?” Dennis shouts, voice muffled by pillow.  “I’m just trying to help!”

“Your advice isn’t needed.”

Now Shun just has homework he needs to finish up.  Some basic book reports, nothing too fancy, and he’s going to hole himself up in his room to do so.

“Whatever you’re doing it’s going to be a da—“

Shun slams the door shut on Dennis’ face.

The weekend rolls around faster than Shun expects it too, and he ends up at the quad fifteen minutes earlier than the agreed time.  He’s got his phone on him, hands shoved into the pocket of his black pea coat because it’s actually cold enough to require one, and his phone has been going off non-stop with texts.

_I hear you’re going somewhere with someone not Yuuto for once, wow, bro._

_Brother, please have fun on your outing!! <3_

_Sweep Yuuya off his feet!_

_THE HELL YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING WITH MY LITTLE BROTHER!?_

Shun has to squint at that last text.  He doesn’t recognize the number, and the person needs some fucking manners if they’re going to send a text to the wrong number.  Shun’s even about to before it’s followed by a:

 _AND DON’T DELETE THIS MESSAGE, KUROSAKI, I GOT MY EYE ON YOU_.

Seriously, what the hell—

“Kurosakiiii!!” and Yuuya comes running up, stopping to catch his breath.  “Gosh, sorry I’m a bit late my brothers were holding me up this morning.”

“Why?  You’re just going out with a friend.”

“Friend—uhm, yeah!” Yuuya straightens back up.  “They like to blow things out of proportion.  Just because I wanted to look a little bit nice today they kind of—“

Shun’s phone goes off again.

_SERIOUSLY.  I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE._

“I take it this is from one of your brothers then?” Shun shows Yuuya his phone screen.

The red on Yuuya’s face now is definitely not from running, and he buries his face in his hands, “Yuugo, noooooo!!”

Older brother.

Makes sense.

“I’ll ignore it—“

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s better than being nailed in the head by dryer sheets.”

Yuuya squeaks at that.  “A-an accident besides how come you haven’t forgotten that!” Yuuya is really cute when flustered—

Shun shoos that thought away and just snorts.

“It’s one hell of a first impression, if you look back on it.”

“But it’s embarrassing!” they’re already moving, feet idly taking them wherever.  The campus is quiet, air crisp, and Shun tries to think of some other place to take Yuuya that isn’t the school cafeteria or the old ma and pa shop not too far from here.

“Embarrassing.”

“Totally embarrassing—geeze, are you always this snarky?”

“I got crowned biggest asshole in school one year.”

“You’re lying.”

“I have the award if you want to see it.”

“ _Totally_ lying!” but Yuuya’s laughing more like himself again.  No awkward stutter or red blush or embarrassment because of overly protective brothers.  It’s nice to hear that laugh again, something that tickles Shun’s ears pleasantly, makes him feel—

Record screech.

Shun stops those thoughts all over again, wondering where the hell they were coming from, exactly. 

“Anyways, did you just wanna walk around or—oh!” Yuuya skips a couple of steps ahead.  “There’s this new sweets shop that opened up in downtown!”

“Not exactly a fan of sweets,” Shun says automatically, but he keeps following Yuuya.

“They have coffee?”

“That can work.”

“Awesome!  We can walk there!”

And there’s something else Shun’s been noticing recently.  Just how vibrant Yuuya is, how he stands out—no, no, no Shun pushes that all down.  Friends, they’re friends, and this is just some admiration thing that will pass.  This is just a promise to hang out, not a date, not a date—

But it’s just the two of them—

 _Not a date_.

Regardless of the circumstances they’re just friends and if this counts as a date then hell Shun’s been on multiple dates with multiple people (ie Yuuto and Dennis) in the past.  Which…Shun would never date Dennis--for the fact he knows what Dennis does at four am--and while he may have debated dating Yuuto once that’s come to pass as well.

So this…this everything.  Yuuya ahead of him, talking about everything there, about what the newest play is going to be, and all of that.  The way the weather is just perfect for a quiet walk, how there’s a sweets shop, how Yuuya gets embarrassed is kind of cute, and how Shun’s getting a bit of a pitter patter in his heart—

Shit, shit, shit.

Dennis had been right.

The asshole had been right.

“Kurosaki, you okay?”

“Yeah.”

And, really, it’d be nice if Yuuya started calling him Shun at some point.  His name probably sounds nice if Yuuya says it. 

“It’s not too far from here!” Yuuya continues.  “Just a few more minutes!”

Shun’s suddenly regretting asking Yuuya out.  If these kinds of thoughts are going to be in his head throughout all of this then he needs to figure out a backup plan or something fast.  He’s not going to last at this rate, not at all.

“Hey,” Shun starts, but stops it just as quickly as they end up right at the entrance of a small café.  White decorations, cute pastel birds decorating the inside, and the promise of sweet pastries and coffee—it very much looks like a date spot.

“Here we are!” Yuuya beams at him (and has that red tinge on Yuuya’s cheeks always been there or is that from the cold).  “Let’s go in, yeah?”

The bell jingles happily as they walk in, someone already coming up to seat them and hand them menus. 

He’s not going to last—

He’s not going to make it—

Not with this knowledge—

“This all looks really good, uhhhhh—“

Shun spares one look at the menu, decides on getting a cup of coffee, and starts panicking about what else to do.  This is foreign territory.  He’s never explored “crushes” let alone “love” or “dating.”  He’s a fish out of water in that field, a bird that can’t fly yet just left to awkwardly hop about and flap its down wings.

Yuuya’s back to looking at him, “What do you think, Shun?  The strawberry tart or the turtle cheesecake?”

“Go for whatever,” not like he’s an expert in sweets. 

And Yuuya Sakaki.

Yuuya Sakaki, a Gemini and blood type B, hums, gives him another shy look, and says, “Let’s split a strawberry tart then.  They’re not as sweet.”

Shun’s internally screaming.

“That sounds good, I’ll pay then—“

“No, I got it, I mean, I still gotta make up for our first meeting—“

Both pause, a sudden awkwardness settling between them.  Yuuya’s turning red again, looking anywhere but at Shun.  Shun…feels exactly the same way.  It’s ridiculous, because he’s not some school kid in love.  At least, he shouldn’t be this embarrassed when faced with the person he might like after a month of persistence and being brained by their dryer sheets.

“Let’s just order,” Shun mumbles. 

Yuuya nods in agreement.

Before they can even place their order there’s a loud rumbling outside, the noise of tires screeching, followed by a:

“Yuuuuuyaaaa!!”

The door slams open, some blue and banana haired asshole storming in like it’s World War III. 

“Yuuya, why did you leave like that and—you!” a finger is pointed at Shun.

“….me,” Shun can only guess this is Yuugo.

“Yuugo!” Yuuya sounds exasperated.  “What are you doing here?”

Shun is right.

“What am I—you left!  Without saying anything and we’re worried and why are you with this shitty asshole like,” Yuugo makes some exaggerated arm motions.  “That doesn’t mean anything like—you’re on a date and I don’t approve also he’s Yuuto’s friend and Yuuto has really shitty tastes in friends—“

“Oi,” Shun snaps.

The entire mood is ruined by the arrival of one of Yuuya’s brothers, but the awkwardness is lifted so Shun has to be thankful for that.  Now he…he just has to figure out the rest of what he’s feeling.


	5. Romance 325

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A class focused on the study of how these feelings form and steps you can take to get that special someone. Crushes 215 prerequisite.

It’s four in the afternoon this go around, and Shun’s sitting backwards in the chair he has dragged up to the folding table claimed by his stuff and Yuuto.

“You’re crushing on my little brother,” his voice is flat, entirely not thrilled, and Shun can’t blame him.

“For a while now, it seems,” Shun answers.  “And it includes his ridiculous Discover Hippo keychain.”

There’s a shout from somewhere, a person calling for someone to help them with a broken washer or something.  Shun ignores it (and the pungent smell of soap that follows) in favor of burying his face in his arms.

“You’re losing that tough asshole reputation you had in high school,” Yuuto tells him, bringing his legs up to set cross legged on the table.  “Then again, Yuuya seems to have that effect on everyone he runs into.”

“I regret many things right now,” Shun’s words are muffled by his arms.  “I regret you having a little brother.  I regret not choosing a better hiding place that one day.  I regret taking him out on a date.”

“Yeah, but Yuugo came home having a heart attack so it was worth it on my end.”

“Dickwad.”

But the details Yuuto texted him the end of his and Yuuya’s….hang out…..had been hilarious.  Yuugo had walked in a combine mess of crying and yelling on how Yuuya doesn’t need to grow up just yet and also why Kurosaki Shun he’s an asshole.  Which Shun can’t really deny that bit at all.

He is an asshole.

“So what are you going to do?” Yuuto asks.

Shun kicks idly at some of the soap suds that have drifted from the broken washing machine towards where they sat.

“Nothing,” Shun says.  “Continue on with life.”

“You live a horribly sad existence.”

“ _Today on the Talk we have special guest star—_ “

“Shut up,” Shun sits up.  “Not like you know the first thing about romance.”

“Yeah, but unlike you I have a girlfriend.”

“Fuck you.”

“ _—internet sensation whose taken the net by storm with their love advice, introducing—_ “

Yuuto shrugs, “I don’t know, that little date was about….a month ago?”  And Shun and Yuuya have gone on multiple more since under the disguise of them all being an outing or some hang out, and mostly every single one had just driven the nail in deeper.

He, Kurosaki Shun, a Scorpio and blood type AB, has a big, fat crush on Sakaki Yuuya, a Gemini and blood type B. 

“It was,” Shun answers. 

“So just tell him.”

“You’re the worst person to ask for love advice,” Shun grunts. 

“You wanna ask Dennis instead.”

“Hell no, he’d tell me to woo Yuuya with opera or some shit.”

“And you can’t sing.”

Not at all.  Shun can hit a few notes at best but past that he’s absolutely tone deaf.  He’d much rather keep pace with the beat. 

His foot kicks at fluffy suds again.

In the background, someone squeaks as they go slipping by holding the mop.

“It’s fine like this,” Shun ends up saying. 

“Is it?” and Shun finds himself being smacked in the head a second time.  He yelps, rubbing at his head, and looking down at where his own box of dryer sheets ended up in the sudsy mess on the floor. 

“The hell, Yuuto—“

“Kurosaki Shun giving up so easily is like a disgrace to the Kurosaki name,” Yuuto’s words are enough to make Shun bristle.

“You calling me weak—“

“Calling you a coward that runs away with his tail tucked between his legs at the idea of being rejected.  Geeze, some strong guy you’re supposed to be.”

Oh, that’s it.  That’s it.  Shun’s going to fucking prove Yuuto wrong.

It’s easier said than done, however.

Another week passes, Shun doing everything in his power to try and tell Yuuya that he loves him, with each attempt ending worse than the last.  Flowers didn’t work, neither did pastries, and trying to get one on one time with Yuuya during the school day?  Impossible.

Other stunts were attempted, including one that involved a stereo and an electric guitar, but no.

It seemed just impossible to get everything through.

“Or maybe that’s your own awkwardness speaking,” Dennis tells him as Shun goes to leave again—as he always does. 

“No,” and Shun shuts the door in Dennis’ face.

Even if Dennis might be a wealth of good ideas, Shun’s going to try and figure this out on his own.  There’s other ways he can do it, and if a week of being subtle doesn’t work then he has to be blunt.  More direct with how he phrases his question and how obvious he makes it that “Sakaki Yuuya will you please be my boyfriend even though about two months ago I tried hiding from you in that one laundromat you brained me at.”

Shun’s good at that.

He’s blunt.

He’s to the point.

He’s also sarcastic as hell and a raging douche canoe according to most but hey, hey, that’s okay.

That’s _okay_.

All’s fair in love and war and all of that.

And another thing Shun has to work on is getting Yuuya to call him “Shun” and not “Kurosaki.”  That’d be nice at least in the long run if this whole friends to boyfriends thing doesn’t work.

It’s…

Shun can’t believe he’s getting this worked up about everything. 

He can’t.

Before, he’d just ignore it.  Stomp it down because it’s not worth his time.  Now, he’s pinpointed a cause of problems, one that he can easily fix if he just reaches for it.  Stretches his arms out, grasps, races for victory—

Metaphors, too many metaphors.

Shun starts walking down the steps to head towards the student union.  He has his phone in his hand, with all intents of texting Yuuya so they can meet up somewhere and Shun can confess in the most cliché ways possible.

To the point.

Sunset in the background.

There, it’s done, he has a game plan.  He just has to text Yuuya—

_Yuuya, wanna meet for lunch at student union?_

How lame can he get?

The response is instantaneous, however.  A bright and cherry “yes!!” gracing Shun’s message log.  That’s…that’s a bit more comforting but still not enough.  When he gets to the union, it’s already crowded, and trying to find Yuuya in all of it as an absolute mess.

The only reason he’s able to find Yuuya, in the end, is because Yuuya had latched on to the back of his jacket and never let go until both emerged relatively unscathed in front of the burger shop.

“Hey there, Kurosaki.”

“Hey.”

Now or never, Shun, now or never.

“I was kind of shocked when I got that text from you considering you rarely ask me out for lunch,” Yuuya’s laughing, that familiar tinge of red on his face.

Shun’s heart clenches.

“Yeah, well, change of pace is nice.  Can’t be Yuuto’s eating partner forever.”

Another laugh.

“So you become mine?  Geeze….”

Now or never, now or never, now or never, Shun keeps chanting it over and over in his head.  He has to say it, just get your food, sit down, and—

“Yuuya,” Shun says, voice sharp and eyes sharper.  Yuuya flinches, that flush climbing higher on his face, coming up from his neck to his ears.

“Y-yes?”

“I—“


	6. Romance 450

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An in depth look at love. Romance 325 prerequisite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the more tired I become the sloppier it gets hfskjdg

It’s three in the fucking morning and Shun’s vision is crossing as he works on another report due and waits for his laundry to finish.  The only noise in the laundromat at this ungodly hour are the drones of the machines, the night shift working in the back, and the single old tv propped high.

“ _This fabulous offer is only a limited time only, so order now to receive your—_ “

Still playing infomercials. 

Shun sighs, head thunking on the table as he tries to make heads or tails of this one note he had taken for research.  He squints, turns the index card this way, turns the index card that way, and determines that it’s pretty much a nothing.

A no go.

That’s tossed to the side, Shun grabbing the next card to look over.

So when it comes to—

The door of the laundromat opens with a cheery jingle.  Shun prays for whichever poor sap is stuck in a laundromat at three am doing a paper just like him.  Of course, that never happens.  Instead, arms wrap around his shoulders and a head buries itself against him.

“Stop being here so early,” Yuuya whines.  “Shuuuuuun.”

“I have homework,” Shun’s response is automatic. 

“It’s also three,” but Yuuya doesn’t pursue any other conversation, instead waiting for Shun to scooch back some so he could collapse in Shun’s lap.

A washer goes off with a ding.

“That doesn’t stop a paper from existing,” Shun says.  And as much as he would like to be out of here and in bed he can’t and he needs to stay awake.

“Well I say it needs to stop existing for a day because,” and Yuuya pushes down Shun’s hand and looks at him with mischievous red eyes, “I’m the boyfriend, right?”

“….yeah.”

And he wouldn’t change it, Shun thinks, as he goes in for the kiss.

He wouldn’t change it at all, content with how Yuuya snuggles up to him.

“ _Sham Woah is the super absorbent cleaner that you can send through the washer and it comes out perfectly clean—_ “

And that shitty TV in the laundromat keeps on playing infomercials and it's three in the morning and here he is with Sakaki Yuuya, some loser who decided to enter Shun's life by throwing a box of dryer sheets at his head, leaning against him asleep.

 


End file.
